Generalist concern with developing specialties in vernacular photography, transportation, and the Midwest. A few items presented here, though most material offered via periodic e-lists and catalogs. Please contact us to be added to our mailing list.

[Photo Album of 1980's Ohio School Cafeterias]

400.00

[Photo Album of 1980's Ohio School Cafeterias]

400.00

A remarkable visual record of Generation X popular culture, food, public education food services, etc... A photo album of school lunchrooms in Northwest Ohio, circa-1985 (undated, though the combination of hair and clothing styles, a Pac-Man poster motif, a Walter Payton jersey on one student, etc... strongly suggest about 1985, give or take a year or two). Identified locations include Tiffin, Maumee, Bucyrus, and Marion, three small cities in the northwestern and north-central portions of the State. The album's creator is unclear, though the relative geographic separation of locales (Marion is some 90 miles from Maumee, for instance) suggests representative of a food distributor or otherwise similar food program management firm.

Images include many of original signage artwork, custom marketing designs for the school lunch programs, a few with somewhat menacing messages concerning proper payment and "no charges." A quintessential 80's style is in the forefront, and the food...oh, the food. Aside from clearly identified items, (ice cream in a large container, milk in cartons, etc...) we are legitimately unable to identify many of the food items shown in the images. Are those refried beans or barbecue sauce? Is that a taco salad or some sort of pastry?

School lunch programs have been a recent political flash point and their nutritional reform was a top priority for former First Lady Michelle Obama whose efforts resulted in the 2010 passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The initiative, one which mandated whole grains, less sodium, etc…, was, of course, rolled back by the Trump administration in 2017, with Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, pledging a return to the halcyon days of mystery meat and to "make school meals great again."More image scans visible here.

A remarkable visual record of Generation X popular culture, food, public education food services, etc... A photo album of school lunchrooms in Northwest Ohio, circa-1985 (undated, though the combination of hair and clothing styles, a Pac-Man poster motif, a Walter Payton jersey on one student, etc... strongly suggest about 1985, give or take a year or two). Identified locations include Tiffin, Maumee, Bucyrus, and Marion, three small cities in the northwestern and north-central portions of the State. The album's creator is unclear, though the relative geographic separation of locales (Marion is some 90 miles from Maumee, for instance) suggests representative of a food distributor or otherwise similar food program management firm.

Images include many of original signage artwork, custom marketing designs for the school lunch programs, a few with somewhat menacing messages concerning proper payment and "no charges." A quintessential 80's style is in the forefront, and the food...oh, the food. Aside from clearly identified items, (ice cream in a large container, milk in cartons, etc...) we are legitimately unable to identify many of the food items shown in the images. Are those refried beans or barbecue sauce? Is that a taco salad or some sort of pastry?

School lunch programs have been a recent political flash point and their nutritional reform was a top priority for former First Lady Michelle Obama whose efforts resulted in the 2010 passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The initiative, one which mandated whole grains, less sodium, etc…, was, of course, rolled back by the Trump administration in 2017, with Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, pledging a return to the halcyon days of mystery meat and to "make school meals great again."More image scans visible here.